The present invention pertains to electrically powered appliances installed outdoors, and, in particular, to an apparatus for shielding from the elements the electrical circuitry of an appliance such as a package air conditioner and heat pump unit.
Package air conditioner and heat pump units are conventionally employed with mobile homes and modular homes, but may also find useful application in residential and commercial buildings. Package units of this general type are installed outdoors and connected via return and supply ducts to the air ducts within, for example, a mobile home. When operated, the package unit furnishes the heating and cooling airflow required to maintain a comfortable living environment within the mobile home.
One problem with existing package units pertains to the need to protect their electrical circuitry from exposure to weather conditions, such as rain, which could compromise the operation of the circuitry. Depending on their intended uses, package units may be equipped with disconnect switches to satisfy safety codes and/or circuit breakers to control, for example, electric strip heating elements incorporated into the package units to achieve additional heating capabilities. While positioning disconnect switches and circuit breakers completely inside the package unit housing may aid in preventing moisture from reaching such electrical componentry, the need to disassemble the housing to service or operate such componentry may be both time-consuming and inconvenient.
One prior art design to increase accessibility to disconnect switches and circuit breakers involved porting such circuitry through openings in the package unit housing and covering such circuity with a rain shield that could be pivoted to a retracted position for circuitry access. In this design, the electrical circuitry was disposed on the positive pressure side of the package unit, and consequently air which passed between the rain shield and the unit housing during package unit operation was blown out from the package unit. However, because the package unit blower does not operate at all times and a positive pressure condition is therefore not continually present, moisture can still seep between the rain shield and the unit housing to reach the circuitry underneath the rain shield. Furthermore, such a rain shield is of limited effectiveness in situations where circuitry is to be mounted on the negative pressure side of the package unit, as air potentially laden with moisture tends to be drawn or pulled toward the electrical circuitry in such situations.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus which allows electrical circuitry to be accessibly mounted on the exterior of a package unit while still protecting such circuitry from the elements.